Industry News

The Nexus of Forces: more business focus, less tech [Gartner]

The Nexus of Forces has been a huge focus for research house Gartner for the last two years. The Nexus, which comprises of the…

Rinse, repeat. Google Street View car crashes into bus, flees, crashes again

Google has been mapping out the world’s roads for drivers to enjoy everywhere for years now. However, not too many people have seen the…

Is it all over for Apple?

Apple’s low key announcement of the new iPhone 5S and multi-coloured iPhone 5C came and went without much fanfare. The technology press certainly weren’t…

The iPhone 5C was never meant for China, or any other emerging market

So here we are, in the aftermath of the announcement of Apple’s new iPhones, and as usual the entire world has exploded. This time…

The NSA’s pretending to be Google: that’s got to be bad for business

The NSA Edward Snowden revelations are getting worse and worse for the reputation of leading Silicon Valley companies as the latest information shows that…

Microsoft pulls its iPhone parody ads

A good parody is difficult to pull off and Microsoft has pretty much admitted it got it wrong with its latest efforts taking on…

Website consumption patterns are changing. Remember when the main way to surf a website was via its homepage? Well, that was the old days. The rise of super-fast, super-efficient search engines mean that users are increasingly accessing websites via deep links that bypass their homepages directly to a website’s articles. It’s essentially a backdoor into your website. Search engines aren’t the only ones to blame. Bloggers generally link directly to the articles they are writing about, ignoring homepages. RSS feeds, which allow users to subscribe directly to article feeds, are also responsible for the decline of the homepage. So what does this mean? Paradoxically it is both a problem and an opportunity for publishers.

Where are the great online magazines? Where?

Magazines have not enjoyed the same high profile, runaway success of their newspaper counterparts in the online world. Magazines aren’t big online. Websites of print magazines have had a rather low profile in more than 10 years of internet in this country. Compare this to the high-profile online news brands that rake in big numbers and you will see what I mean. It’s no secret that the news brands dominate the top half of the local online readership rankings, whereas very few magazines even make the top 50 sites….

Bloggers can now enter major journalism award

Just noticed that the Telkom ICT Journalist of the year award now has a “Citizen Journalist” category, accepting entries from blogs or personal websites….

Online ‘permanence’

Imagine a world where you could actively sell advertising on archived content. Well, it’s here. Content on a website should never die. Never, ever. To delete content on a website is a waste. Online articles and their links should be permanent. In the world of the dead tree, articles have limited lifespans. You read your paper, then it’s used to wrap fish and chips, is thrown in the rubbish bin, or lives a lonely life of obscurity in some dusty library archive….

It’s about branding, stupid

Online advertising is not only about clicks, leads and acquisitions… branding is important too. There are a number of competing online advertising models on the net. By far the most dominant one used by online publishers is the Cost-per-Thousand (CPM) model. CPM is the closest online advertising gets to advertising in traditional media. The advertiser pays in advance to place an advert that will be displayed to the website’s readership base, which should generate return on investment. Through the campaign there will be branding for the advertiser, click-throughs on the advert, leads and hopefully acquisition of the product. Everyone’s happy?

Battle of the business sites

Websites that report on financial news and information were always going to crack it online. The web is the perfect medium for delivering up-to-the-minute financial news and data. Moreover, the LSM of the average business news reader matches that of the online reader: Both are high. The five biggest consumer-focused business sites, reporting on general financial news in South Africa, are engaged in a tussle to capture a bigger share of this lucrative reader and advertising market….

Sunday Times revamps website

Sunday Times has relaunch their site. The redesign looks great. Following the latest trend in creating wide-format sites, their website really hits the spot…

The Google plan: sell advertising everywhere

Those clever guys at Google… they’re planning to “organise the world’s information”, but also they should add that after organising that information, they’re going…

Scoop: New "Web 2.0" recruitment site launches in South Africa

Here’s a scoop for ya. I’ve just been alerted to what looks like a new and pretty serious “Web 2.0” entrant in the South…

Is Google a monster?

On Poynter emedia tidbits on which I am a fellow contributor, the big question is asked of the dot.com mega success story, Google: “Can…

We Media

Journalism on the internet is becoming a “conversation” rather than a “sermon”. Mainstream media should take note. What’s going on with the internet these…

Court judgement pasted on Google.be homepage

Here’s something I bet you’ve never seen before. See this rather long court judgement from a Belgian court pasted on Google’s normally-minimalist and clean…

Online media – growing pains

I did a PDF of my powerpoint presentation (3mbs) at the recent Captivate Student Media conference that I popped down to Grahamstown for on…

Bloggers show online publishers how to use the net

It’s no surprise that the blogosphere has grown so big, so quickly. Not only is it easier and cheaper to publish than ever before via blogs,…

50m bloggers, 6bn people — but who gets to speak?

Ethan Zuckerman, the founder of Tripod and activist site Global Voices Online, emphasised just how difficult it is to get news about Africa, especially…

Online is no ‘threat’

It’s time to leave the dark ages. The traditional advertising and media industry needs to see the potential of online or get left behind….

Sony WF-1000XM6 Lands In South Africa With Smarter Noise Cancelling And Premium Sound

Best MEXC Referral Code: mexc-NFTP (Get Up to 10,000 USDT)

Innovate47 Launches Global Food & Agri Accelerator to Back Climate-Smart Startups

Simbi Wabote’s 10-Year Roadmap: How Nigeria Achieved 54% Local Content Growth

Records Tumble In Best Year Yet For South Africa’s Hedge Fund Industry

OPPO Reno15 Series Lands In South Africa With Big Cameras And Bigger Battery Ambitions

OPPO Reno15 Series Brings Flagship-Level Hardware Logic to the Mid-Tier in South Africa

HONOR’s customer first strategy is reshaping South Africa’s smartphone market

Omoda C5 X review

TDK enhances IMUs for extreme temps

Data centres and defence are reviving diesel